Authorities in the US are once again searching for a hip-hop star who owes thousands of dollars to women he was convicted of swindling after doubts were raised over the veracity of reports he had died in February were raised.

US rapper Tim Dog is believed to have faked his own death

AP

2:55AM BST 24 May 2013

Tim Dog, 46, whose real name is Timothy Blair, is best known for a 1990s song "F--- Compton" that criticised rival West Coast rappers.

Hip-hop magazine, The Source reported that the singer had died of diabetes related illness. The story has since disappeared from its website.

One of the swindling victims from Mississippi told prosecutors that restitution payments to her stopped coming in around the same time Blair was reported dead, said Steven Jubera, the county prosecutor handling the case. Jubera has since found no death records or any proof of where or how Blair died, so he sought an arrest warrant, alleging the rapper hasn't paid restitution from the 2011 grand larceny conviction. A judge approved it.

"I have no proof that he's dead, so I have to presume that he's alive," Jubera said.

Blair was sentenced in August 2011 to 14 days in jail and five years on probation for swindling $32,000 from a woman who met him on an online dating site four years earlier. He was ordered to pay about $19,000 in restitution.

Blair is from New York, but had been living in Atlanta. The Fulton County medical examiner's office there said there was no record of his death.

Those at the front desk of the high rise listed as his last address said they didn't know of anyone by the name Timothy Blair living there.

In a story earlier this month about rappers dying in their 40s from various ailments, The Associated Press reported Blair's death, but did not say when he died or give a cause. Neither did many other media reports.

The Mississippi woman who accused Blair of scamming her was featured last year on "Dateline NBC," along with other women he had persuaded to give him money.

Esther Pilgrim, of Southaven, Mississippi, told the program she opened credit cards to get money to invest in Tim Dog albums that Blair said he was producing.